Ellie is 7!

Guess who just turned 7?  That's right, Ellie.  We have a tradition in our birthday for everyone except for Joe, who would rather not get up early, that we get up first thing and open presents.  The kids all came rushing down the stairs to wake us up and let Ellie open her presents.  She said she wanted a new camera and lots of bracelets and necklaces for her birthday!

 

 That is what she got...lots and lots of bracelets and a couple of necklaces and a camera.  I found this cute craft on pinterest and made her a magnet board using a cookie sheet.  She felt it wrapped up and thought it must be a picture frame, so she told everyone that she was getting a picture frame.  We all joked back that it was just a cookie sheet.  She didn't believe us, but sure enough it was....

 Adam ran downstairs before he woke Ellie and brought this Lego creation down that he made, first for my birthday, but he finished it for hers. Isn't it cute?

Since this is an odd year for her birthday, (7 is and odd number) we didn't do a big party.  Instead we invited Ellie's favorite friend, Sydney and we all went to the movies.  We saw the movie Hotel Transylvania.  That night was trunk-or-treat, so we didn't have Ellie blow out candles until the next night.  She didn't mind.

 Here is Ellie's 1st grade picture from school.  I think she looks a lot like my sister in this picture.  Ellie is busy with school, dance- she takes jazz, tap and ballet, gymnastics- she just moved into the pre-developmental class which is hand selected girls that they want to give special training to prep them for competition in a few years, and also piano.  She has been doing piano for about 9 months and is about ready to move out of the first set of books.  She loves school, has a lot of friends- not only because there are a lot of girls at church that are her age, but also because she is a social butterfly and likes to play with other girls.  She loves to play games and wishes that I will play games with her every second of every day.  She doesn't want to be outdone by her brothers, so she can play video games, especially Minecraft, right along with them.  She loves to be right and will argue a point with Adam and Michael until someone else intercedes.  Her current favorite colors are red, orange, pink and purple.   She has perfected the fake cry and uses it as often as possible to try to get someone to take pity on her when I'm making her do something she doesn't want to.  She gets perfect grades in school, seriously, her report card was 99, 99, 98 and 100.  I think she gets a little bored at school, but she makes up for it by telling the kids around her what to do, "so they don't waste so much class time."  She still loves to sit on mine or Joe's lap and she likes it when we play with her hair or cuddle her.  We really are lucky to have one (and just one) girl in our family!